USDC Overtakes Tether in Q2 2026 Adjusted Volume

USDC overtook Tether on an adjusted transaction volume metric in Q2 2026. Circle received MiCA authorization from France’s ACPR and met GENIUS Act alignment for both USDC and EURC. European enforcement that began July 1 redirected regulated exchange activity away from USDT toward USDC on EU platforms.

USDC supply ended Q2 2026 at roughly $45 billion to $50 billion, up from about $43 billion to $45 billion at the end of Q1. Year-over-year growth for USDC was approximately 40% to 50%. The total stablecoin market reached about $322 billion in Q2 2026, and USDC’s market share was about 14% to 16%.

The adjusted transaction volume measure removes wash trading and bot activity to capture genuine transfers; on that basis USDC surpassed USDT in Q2 2026. USDT’s raw transaction counts remained high on Tron (TRC-20), but adjusted commercial activity favored USDC.

Circle publishes monthly reserve attestations by Deloitte. USDC reserves are held in the BlackRock Circle Reserve Fund, a U.S. government money market fund, with roughly 80% to 85% in short-duration U.S. Treasuries and about 15% to 20% in cash and equivalents. USDC reserves contain no bitcoin or other volatile assets. In contrast, USDT’s reported reserve mix has included bitcoin holdings estimated at about $8 billion to $10 billion.

Circle reported hundreds of millions of dollars in quarterly revenue from interest on USDC reserves in Q2 2026. Circle distributes about half of that reserve yield to Coinbase as a distribution fee.

On-chain activity varied by network. USDC on Solana recorded the fastest growth in active wallet count among major stablecoins in 2026, driven by PayPal’s PYUSD activity on Solana, Coinbase’s native Solana USDC distribution to its more-than-100-million verified users, and Phantom Wallet’s monthly active user base. USDC on Base was the fastest-growing stablecoin by active wallets on an Ethereum Layer 2, supported by Coinbase’s Base integration and low transaction fees. ERC-20 USDC on Ethereum retained the highest average wallet balances and the deepest institutional DeFi integration, serving as primary liquidity for protocols including Aave, Compound, Uniswap and Curve.

Circle expanded the Circle Payments Network in Q2, adding financial institution members that use USDC for bilateral FX settlement as an alternative to correspondent banking rails. Circle extended its Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) to additional chains; CCTP moves USDC by burning it on the source chain and minting on the destination chain to avoid lock-in with bridge contracts.

On June 30 an Open USD consortium launched with more than 140 founding partners, and Stripe committed Open USD as the default stablecoin for Stripe-powered businesses. PayPal’s PYUSD activity on Solana contributed to consumer payment demand on that chain.

Regulatory deadlines influenced market behavior in mid-2026. MiCA’s July 1 enforcement date prompted exchange delistings of USDT for regulated EU users. The GENIUS Act final rules deadline in mid-July established federal compliance baselines that market participants used to assess stablecoin counterparty risk; Circle reported that USDC met those standards.

Comparative figures for Q2 2026: USDC supply about $45 billion to $50 billion versus USDT about $158 billion to $160 billion. Primary chains for USDC include Solana and Ethereum; USDT’s primary chain is Tron. USDC attestations are monthly through Deloitte; USDT attestations have been quarterly. Circle manages USDC reserves through the BlackRock Circle Reserve Fund; Tether manages reserves directly and has included bitcoin.